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28 January 2022

Dame Judi Dench says she begged a parrot for help after suffering a ‘frightful fall’ at home

28 January 2022

Dame Judi Dench has admitted that maintaining her independence as she gets older has become “very difficult,” and recalled a worrying incident where she was left unable to get up off the floor after tripping over the carpet at her Surrey home.

“I had a frightful fall not long ago,” the Oscar-winning actress, 87, began.

“I tripped over the carpet, and there was nobody in the house and I was lying on the ground unable to get up for half an hour.”

Desperate, the James Bond star told how she had even turned to her pet parrot, Sweetheart, for help.

“I have a wonderful parrot who kept saying, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’ This is when you need a very convenient parrot who would phone somebody – but she didn’t.”

Thankfully, she says she eventually “just got up” without the assistance of her feathered friend, but Dench was clearly shaken by it all.

Dench lives four miles from partner David Mills, 77, while her daughter Finty Williams and grandson Sam aren’t that far away either.

The Belfast actress went on to explain that she currently doesn’t have a panic alarm installed in her home should another incident occur, because she wants to hold on to her independence.

“It’s just something you have to live with. But you want to be independent – and it’s very, very difficult,” she added to Saga magazine.

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